Book Review | To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

To Be Taught, If Fortunate is a stand alone science fiction novella by Becky Chambers.

In her new novella, Sunday Times best-selling author Becky Chambers imagines a future in which, instead of terraforming planets to sustain human life, explorers of the solar system instead transform themselves.

Ariadne is one such explorer. As an astronaut on an extrasolar research vessel, she and her fellow crewmates sleep between worlds and wake up each time with different features. Her experience is one of fluid body and stable mind and of a unique perspective on the passage of time. Back on Earth, society changes dramatically from decade to decade, as it always does.

Ariadne may awaken to find that support for space exploration back home has waned, or that her country of birth no longer exists, or that a cult has arisen around their cosmic findings, only to dissolve once more by the next waking. But the moods of Earth have little bearing on their mission: to explore, to study, and to send their learnings home.

This book is why I love reading. That feeling you get when you are reading a book that is so perfect for you. That feeling so strong it hurts. I'm reading the Fablehaven series with my son right now because he had that feeling in book two and wanted me to join in. I hope you know that feeling! I had that feeling multiple times over in To Be Taught, If Fortunate.

Becky Chambers took me to other worlds. Worlds with different landscapes and different lifeforms. Earlier this year I tried to read A Long Road to a Small, Angry Planet, and I just didn't connect with it right away so I put it down. I'm an idiot. I'm going to go back to that one hopefully before the end of the year. I want to read everything Becky Chambers creates.

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